It Started With A Hug
by jemb
Summary: A short 2 parter filled with fluff, some angst and more fluff all about my favourite pairing BB of course.
1. Chapter 1

**_Just a small fluffy two parter I came up with for you to enjoy. Not much else I can say except its BB fluff, of course._**

It started with a hug. Up until that point, Brennan had maintained a physical distance from Booth. She allowed him to touch her arm or place an open hand on her back, which was more than she afforded any other man she knew, but the thought of allowing this man to hold her was something Brennan would not consider. She knew what it would mean to her, where she would want it to go and how it would change the way he thought about her. Even when she was distraught she would stand across the room, an invisible wall in front of her. Booth knew why she did it and he didn't push…much. He knew that with every touch, every gesture, he was breaking down that wall and one day she would let him in.

The first time he held her it was more for himself than for her. He had come within seconds of losing her and all he wanted to do was feel her body next to his, reassuring himself that she was alive. He knew she needed it too. She needed the comfort, the assurance that she was safe and only he could provide that for her. The physical contact itself had been painful for Booth due to his injuries from the explosion in her apartment, but when he saw that smile on her face the pain all but melted away. She was safe and in his arms.

xxxx

Their second hug was equally as emotional. Brennan was struggling with her identity and that of her parents. Booth was there to offer her reassurance that regardless of her birth name, he knew who she was. He knew what made her laugh, what made her sad, where she liked to spend her free time and who she spent that time with. He knew her favourite novel, her most played CD and her secret love for Jazz music. He knew her. She had buried her face in his jacket, her tears falling almost silently and he rubbed her back and held her tight.

xxxx

It wasn't that the partners started hugging all the time. In fact it was a long time before they hugged next. But when it happened, it wasn't because of a physical or emotional trauma like before. They had been out for dinner with the rest of the squints after a big case ended. Booth and Brennan were the last to leave the restaurant and it happened as they parted. Booth bid her goodnight, Brennan wished him the same. Then he opened his arms and she stepped towards him. His arms closed around her as she wrapped her arms around his back. They embraced for no more than a couple of seconds but it had felt like a lifetime.

xxxx

After that, hugs seemed to become a natural part of their relationship. Some were just a quick squeeze around the shoulders, some celebratory and others were for comfort. Brennan knew that with every hug she was opening herself up to the possibility that Booth might become more than just a friend and partner to her but that thought didn't scare her as much as it had when they first started working together. If anything, it had become something she wanted. But Booth was involved with Cam and Brennan knew his hugs were only friendly. He even called it 'a guy hug' when she was upset about falling for a murderer. Guy hugs are not what you give women you are interested in.

xxxx

Booth relished every opportunity to hold Brennan in his arms. He may have been seeing Cam but he didn't love her, not like he loved Brennan. Booth started to find reasons to hug Brennan and soon they almost always parted with a hug. Each time he felt her body flush against his, he wondered if she felt the same pounding in her heart that he did. But if she did, she didn't show it, at least not to him.

xxxx

The night everything changed, Brennan didn't even know why she had gone to his house. She had been driving home from the lab after a tedious week with no break from limbo bones. She had only seen Booth a couple of times when he stopped by to pick up evidence packets for a couple of cases they had finished and she had missed him. Maybe that's why she drove straight past her turnoff and kept going until she pulled up at his house. His lights were on so she knew he was home and it wasn't late enough for him to be in bed, or so she hoped. She found herself at the front door without really remembering the walk up the path. Her hand seemed to rise of its own accord and knock three times on the wooden door.

When Booth opened his door that Friday night he was expecting a pizza delivery, not Temperance Brennan. She didn't look upset, she didn't look happy, she was just there.

"Uh, hey Bones." He greeted her.

"Hi." She replied nervously.

"Not that I'm not happy to see you Bones, but what are you doing here at…" he paused to check his watch. "…nine on a Friday night?" Brennan glanced down at her feet, wondering what Booth was going to think when she told him why she had come. "Bones?" Booth probed when she remained silent. She finally looked up at him and Booth was confused by the expression on her face.

"I need a hug." She stated. If Booth thought he was confused before, he was more confused after hearing what she just said.

"Is something wrong, did something happen?" he asked. He couldn't think of any other reason Brennan would come all this way just for a hug.

"No, nothing is wrong." she said. As he watched her, Brennan began to think she had made a huge mistake. _He thinks I'm crazy_.

"You just wanted a hug?" he checked.

"Yes." She stated, with false confidence.

"Uh come on in." Booth stood aside and let Brennan walk into his home. Something told him that this visit wasn't just about a hug. "Bones, seriously, what's going on?" he asked.

"I don't know." Brennan admits. "I was driving home and I just…" she trailed off and took a deep breath. "I wanted you to hug me." She lifted her eyes to find Booth's and was a little surprised to see how intensely he was staring at her.

"You wanted me to hug you?" Brennan nods. "Why?"

"Because you always make me feel good when you hug me." She explained, making it sound like it should have been the obvious answer.

"And others don't?"

"Not like you."

"Oh." Booth feels his chest swell with pride. "So uh, you want that hug now?" Brennan nodded and stepped towards Booth's open arms. As soon as he closed them around her she felt better, like when a painkiller gets rid of a headache and you can think straight again. _Is Booth like a drug to me?_ She wondered for a moment. She found herself flush against him, her head resting on his shoulder as he rubbed comforting gentle circles on her back. Something about this just felt so right but it was far from a normal friendly hug. It lasted too long and they were too close. Finally she pulled back from him.

"Thank you." She said.

"That's it?"

"There should be more?" she asked in return.

"Do you want there to be?" Booth couldn't bring himself to be the first to answer.

"Do you?" Brennan responded with yet another question. Booth stood watching her, feeling very mixed up. He wasn't really sure what he was just asking her or what she was asking him.

"I'm confused." He stated.

"Me too." She sighed.

"Why are you confused?" Booth asked. Brennan took a moment to think before replying.

"Because I don't think about hugging you the way a friend should." She saw Booth's eyebrows rise in surprise at her statement.

"You don't?" his voice confirmed his surprise.

"You do?" Brennan cocked her head to the side, trying to work out what Booth was thinking by the emotion in his eyes. He wasn't giving anything away.

"Um, well, no I guess I don't." he admitted finally.

"So what does that mean?"

"I don't know Bones." He shook his head and watched as she took a few steps away from him towards the door.

"I should probably go home." She said quietly. "It's late." For some reason she thought Booth would be able to explain all this and having him admit he didn't know what was going on made her doubt herself. When that happens, she runs.

"Don't you think we should talk about this?" Booth asked, a little worried about why Brennan seemed so desperate to leave.

"Talking just seems to make us more confused Booth." Her voice was heavy, tired.

"Bones." He tried one more time to get her to stay.

"I'll see you at work Booth." She added before she slipped out of the door and hurried to her car. She got what she came for but then things took on a whole new direction, one she had not been prepared for. When that happens, Brennan pushes people away. She knew she had just pushed Booth away but at the time she didn't know what else to do.


	2. Chapter 2

**_Massive thanks to skellingtonlover for helping me write this chapter. Without your inspirational words and suggestions, I never would have completed and posted this story. _**

Brennan didn't see Booth for five days after that night at his house. With no FBI case requiring her assistance Booth had no reason to go to the Jeffersonian and their strange encounter made a social call awkward. Temperance didn't realise it but her friends began to notice a change in her. As usual, Angela was the one to point it out.

"Sweetie, what's going on?" Angela asked in that 'tell me even though I'm pretty sure I already know' tone.

"Nothing Angela." Brennan responded. She kept her head down, knowing that if she met her friend's intense stare she would crack.

"You've been moping around here for days. Strangely enough, the same number of days that a certain FBI agent has been absent." Angela walked further into the room and slid down into the chair opposite Brennan. Temperance slowly raised her head and looked at Angela. Her friend's curious stare caused Brennan to purse her lips to stop the whole story from coming out.

"This has nothing to do with Booth."

"So you're admitting there's a 'this'. There is something wrong."

"No, I didn't mean, Angela there's…" Brennan trailed off. It was no use. She needed to talk to someone. "Something happened." She whispered.

"A good something?" Angela smiled and leaned forward.

"I'm not sure."

"What do you mean you're not sure?"

"It started good but…"

"Oh tell me he isn't a disappointment." Angela gasped, wondering if Brennan was about to admit that she slept with Booth and he wasn't the lover Angela romanticised.

"We didn't do that." Brennan leaned back in her chair and picked up a pen, twirling it in her fingers. "We didn't even kiss."

"So what happened exactly?" Angela was curious about what had her friend in such a twist.

"We hugged."

"Big deal, you guys do that all the time." Angela shrugged. "Why was this different?" she probed when she saw the look on Brennan's face, telling her there was more to it.

"We started talking and some things came up."

"Sweetie, if you don't tell me what those things were, I'm going to go crazy."

"I told Booth that I don't think of him…" she paused, sucking in a deep breath. "…Like a friend." She expected Angela to say something, to respond in some way but her friend remained silent, her mouth gaping open in surprise.

"Angela?"

"I…I'm sorry sweetie, I just didn't think you would do that."

"I didn't really mean to." Brennan shrugged. "It just came out. He was holding me and it felt…right. And I told him."

"What did Booth say?" Angela asked, trying to shake the image of Booth and Brennan in each others arms.

"That he was confused."

"Oh."

"I'm confused too."

"Well you two have a complicated relationship." Angela began. "You're not like ordinary people. You can't just admit your feelings and start dating."

"Why not?" Brennan leaned forward, resting her elbows on the desk.

"Honey, you and Booth are like the couple that never is. You dance around a relationship and get real close. Then inevitably something comes between you, more often than not something you put there yourselves, and you have to start all over again."

"Are you saying that Booth and I are not meant to be a couple?"

"Does that upset you?" Angela asked, seeing the disappointed look in Brennan's eyes.

"I just…you're always telling me that we should be together."

"I know. But part of me tells you that because I know it will never happen." Angela admitted.

"What about the other part of you?"

"Because I want you to be together. Sweetie, you and Booth could be this amazing couple. There's just all this stuff in the way and it isn't so easy to get around that stuff."

"Angela, I don't know what to do." Brennan fought back tears.

"I can't tell you what to do Bren." Angela sighed. "This is something you and Booth need to work out. You need to talk to him."

"What am I supposed to do, turn up at his house like I did on Friday and wait for him to reject me?"

"This all happened at his house?"

"Yes." Brennan sinks back down into her chair.

"And you haven't spoken to him since have you?"

"I haven't called him and he…he hasn't called me either."

"Hmm."

"What?"

"Maybe Booth is struggling with this as much as you are. I'm pretty sure he doesn't want to be rejected by you either."

"But I wouldn't. At least I don't think I would. I mean I was the one who brought it all up."

"Maybe. But you run sweetie. When things get difficult you run." Brennan had no reply for this. She knew Angela was right. She knew she was afraid to speak to Booth because she would somehow back out of what she said to him.

"I think I need to go home." Brennan pushed herself out of her chair. "I can't think here."

"Call me if you need to talk some more." Angela said as she watched her friend walk out the door. Angela knew this day would come and as Temperance disappears from view, Angela picks up the phone and dials a familiar number.

xxxx

Brennan was home early for the first time in longer than she could remember. Dim lighting, soft music and a large glass of wine had slowly helped her body unwind. Yet her mind was more active than normal. She couldn't stop thinking about what Angela had told her; that she and Booth were never meant to be together. They were the eternal non-couple. Maybe she was right. Maybe she and Booth were destined to remain friends forever.

xxxx

A sudden knock on her door startled Brennan from her thoughts. As she rose to her feet her stomach began to twist in knots as she realised who her visitor was likely to be. The journey across the apartment to the door took her longer than usual as she fought the urge to run to her room and close the door. She wasn't ready to face him. She wasn't ready to talk about this with him. But a further insistent knock propelled her forward and her hand was turning the door handle before she realised she had placed it there.

As the door slowly swung open, Brennan gradually lifted her bright blue eyes until she met his deep brown chocolate ones. His stare was so intense she gasped in a breath.

"Hey." His voice was low and husky.

"Hi."

"Can I come in?" Brennan stepped back from the door and allowed him to enter her apartment. She could tell by the hunch in his shoulders and the dark circles under his eyes that he had been thinking about what happened as much as she had.

"We need to talk." He stated. It was a simple statement but to Brennan, it had the weight of the world on it. She felt awkward and self conscious and she wrapped her arms around herself as she turned her back to him and walked back into her apartment.

"I think that's a good idea." She said softly, sensing Booth walking in behind her.

"Friday night I let you go without telling you something." Booth said. He needed for her to turn around and face him but he didn't want to force her to, she had to do it on her own. "Bones, please." At the sound of his desperate plea, Brennan slowly turned around to face him.

"When you told me that you didn't think about hugging me like a friend should…" he paused. "I felt the same." He looked into her eyes and saw a glimmer of hope in her sparkling blue orbs. He took a few tentative steps towards her, his shoulders relaxing a little. "I've been thinking about this since you left and I realised something." He took another step towards her so they were standing only a foot apart. "Maybe we aren't meant to be friends." When his words registered with Brennan, her eyes widened and filled with tears. She couldn't believe that Booth was telling her they shouldn't be friends. Discounting Angela, Booth had been the most solid presence in her life the last few years and the thought of losing that terrified her. She couldn't prevent her bottom lip from trembling or from gasping in a shocked breath of air.

"Don't?" she whispered, that one word almost inaudible. Booth looked at her curiously then it occurred to him that she didn't understand what he meant.

"Don't what Bones?" he knew he should clarify things but he needed to know she really did feel as strongly as he did about their feelings.

"Don't come here and tell me you don't want me in your life." She said, her voice coming out stronger than she felt. "Don't tell me we can't be friends. I can't lose you. I need…" Booth silenced her with a look, knowing he had to make her understand what he meant. His eyes told her he had more to say and his body moving closer to her filled her with feelings of both hope and dread.

"If we don't think about each other as friends, maybe we're not meant to be friends." Brennan physically shuddered as he uttered those words again. She fought back the urge to cry and beg him to stop saying it. "Bones." He paused. "Temperance." Booth changed to using her given name, knowing it would catch her full attention. "Maybe we're meant to be more than friends." He raised an eyebrow, a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips. He watched her eyes flash with a thousand emotions as she processed his words. She didn't seem able to answer him so he continued to talk, to explain himself.

"I'm not confused anymore. I have been for a long time because I felt something for you, something I didn't think I should be feeling. Then you came to me and told me you felt it too. I've spent the last week worrying about what this means for us, for our work, for what we are. And I came to one conclusion." He looked at her, anticipating a response. But Temperance was frozen to the spot, in a state of shock. She never expected him to say these words to her and now that she is hearing them, her lightening fast mind is having trouble processing it all.

"Bones, I don't want to dance around this any longer. I don't want us to get close then have to back off because we put some obstacle in the way. I want to be with you. I want you to want to be with me." Brennan realised at this point that Angela had spoken to Booth. Part of her wants to be mad at her friend for betraying her trust but she knew that without Angela, Booth might have come and this might never have been resolved.

"You need to say something Bones." Booth said softly. Her silence was worrying and it didn't escape him that he had been the one doing all the talking.

"I…I…" she couldn't seem to form the words she needed to say.

"It doesn't have to be eloquent Bones. I just need to know what you're thinking here." A soft chuckle came from his throat, breaking some of the tension. Still, she couldn't speak. So she did the only thing she could. She stepped forward and closed the distance between them, unfolding her arms at the same time. She then wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him close to her, burying her head in the material of his jacket at his shoulder. After a moment she felt his arms close around her back and he hugged her tightly, pulling their bodies flush against each other so they could each feel the beat of the other's heart.

They remained in each other's embrace for several minutes, not a word passing between them, which in itself was unusual. Finally Brennan released her grip and drew back so she could look into his eyes.

"I want that too Booth." She smiled.

"That's all I needed to hear." He smiled and leaned towards her. She matched his movement, giving him permission to place that long awaited kiss on her lips. She had waited so long for it to happen that she wanted to savour every moment and she let her eyes flutter closed so she could take it all in. His lips brushed against hers softly before he pulled back for just a moment. He kissed her again, this time applying more pressure which elicited a soft moan from Brennan. Taking this as a sign to continue, Booth pulled her tightly against him with one hand pressed into her back. The other snaked up and cradled her head, allowing him to control the kiss fully. He only drew back from her when the need for air became desperate. And although their lips were no longer touching, he didn't let Brennan draw away from him. He held her close and whispered in her ear.

"We're going to make it Bones."

"I know." She replied before allowing Booth to draw her into the embrace that she now craved. Safe in his arms she knew that whatever life threw at them, they would get through it because they had each other. Finally, they had each other.


End file.
